Walking away from Jessica Schmidt without a smile on your face would be tough.

“Hi! How are you? I’m Jessica. You look wonderful,” she says, smiling warmly and reaching out her hand to greet a visitor.

Walking away from her new Coral Springs store without a few of her ScentsAbility soy candles would be equally tough.

Jessica, 29, and some of her friends – all of whom have intellectual disabilities – hand-pour, custom-label and sell the candles to individuals, businesses and groups holding events, such as wedding receptions and charity fundraisers (they donate 50 percent of the sale back to the charities).

Bonnie Schmidt and her husband, John Becker, started the business in 2008, after Jessica aged out of public school services. A grant from the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation helped them buy supplies for the micro-enterprise.

“We soon realized that there are many other individuals with intellectual disabilities who are out of options and wasting their unique talents,” Schmidt says.

The couple, who own Coral Springs Software, developed a system that enabled Jessica and eight of her friends to make the scented candles in their home. They created programs that help the young adults make sales and keep track of inventory. Jessica and her co-workers, aided by dedicated volunteers, have sold the candles by special order and at craft fairs, and now from their own store. The 1,200-square-foot ScentsAbility Candles, featuring a showroom and workshop, was expected to open Thanksgiving week.

Plans include setting up a class area to teach their retail curriculum, currently in development, to other young adults with special needs. They are also developing a franchise package, but their higher purpose is to help Jessica and other differently abled adults become active, productive members of society.

“The long-term goal – within three years – is to create a village where they can live and work together in a safe, clean environment,” Schmidt says. “We’re lighting the path to independence … one candle at a time.”

The annual Himmarshee hysterics known as the Mad Decent Block Party returned to Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 1, with the Diplo-Skrillex collaboration Jack U, along with Major Lazer (Diplo and Switch), Zeds Dead, Ricky Remedy, Thomas Jack, Jauz and Yellow Claw.

Funkshion Swim Week in South Beach brought bold-faced names such as Brody Jenner, Kaitlyn Carter, LeAnn Rimes, Eddie Cibrian and Lisa Hochstein to the state-of-the-art tent set up on Collins Avenue between 21st and 22nd Streets as well as catwalks at the SLS and The Setai hotels.

The next goal is to create meaningful moments for the Miami Heat, meaningful playoff moments, after his first season with the team produced only a lottery finish. But for Luol Deng, what transpired Saturday in South Africa made the start of the 2015-16 basketball cycle particularly meaningful.

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City & Shore, published 10 times yearly, is a magazine that savors the good life in South Florida. Each issue explores South Florida fashion, home design, travel, fine dining, society, entertainment and lifestyle. The magazine is distributed with the Sun Sentinel to selected subscribers. Also available through mail and upscale businesses from north Miami-Dade, through Broward to Palm Beach counties. City & Shore is published by the Sun Sentinel Co., publisher of the Sun Sentinel, South Florida's leading daily newspaper; and is also available on iTunes, http://tinyurl.com/cf6n93p